Friday, March 7, 2008

After a weekend of work (and some time out for a little snow clearing), Wonderland is finally ready to move to the shop. These three pieces are the first to be added to the shelves (whether or not they stay there depends on customers and other unfinished merchandise pieces, but it's still fun to see them there).

The Flamingo Croquet was so much fun that I'm thinking about making one that really works (ie, truly rolling hedgehogs, little flamingo mallets, etc.). Or maybe I'll just make a mallet and hedgehog for Alice to play with, to keep things a little different.

The Duchess's baby is a classic topy-turvy...but I really love this little guy with his spotty coat and rough little wings....

To check them out at their new home, visit http://www.cordwoodcabinprimitives.com/ (to see more great artists merchandise, join the Prim Mart online community of craftsmen and craft lovers...and check out the online EZ Shoppes run by these fun primitive artists).

'Possum Kittens Jared and Willy wave hello to their new friends from their perch on Cordwood Cabin's webpage.... (no stockings and santa hats this time, since it's not Christmas :-)

Coming soon...Plain and Prim Folk, A Wolf in the Forest, the Blue Caterpillar, lovely little Margaret-the-doll shows off the Primitive Cradles ... and a whole new line of summer projects for Cordwood Cabin!!

I love these postcards!! Our Irish background shows up with a little green extra early...and more will be forthcoming. A special thanks to artist Karen of Karen's Whimsy for providing the amazing public domain images from bygone eras.

A little piece of green straight from the grounds around the Cordwood Cabin...see any four-leaf clovers? I've studied it several times, and never quite spotted one...

The Cordwood Cabin kitties believe in the wearing of the green...and in the pot o' gold (part of this week's auction).

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

The Caterpillar is the last in the line of Wonderland dolls -- all the rest will be items in the shop and maybe an upcoming Looking Glass line. As the last in a fun-filled line, I thought he deserved a blog post all his own.

The first step to making a caterpillar was sewing the individual "circles" that form his body. I didn't need a sketch since I already had an old drawing from years ago of my favorite caterpillar design. I cut the circles from fraying muslin, then sewed, turned, and stuffed -- sizes vary a little, since I wanted the caterpillar to sort of "build smaller" towards the head.

Heavy craft wire, looped on the ends, threaded through each circle, with the ends sewn inside the ends of his body. This made the caterpillar flexible and easier to pose. He needed six arms and six legs, of course, so the same wire was threaded through each circle's side, then curled and posed with a pair of pliers (his feet are wrapped in gold metallic thread to create his little curly-toed slippers).

A coat of cark blue paint, watered down, then sanding and primming. It's not a particular shade, since I combined several old bottles of dark blue, along with a little water, in order to make this dye. His face is left blank, except for the curve of his hood, so I can paint it white and needlesculpt it. The green and gold circles on his back were painted with a toothpick for small detail, along with the little red dot.

I tore up half of the travel section to create strips for the mushroom top. I layered the newspaper and glue over a frame of wire, and painted it red and white after it dried. I drilled a hole through an old dowel piece to create the stump (it's fastened to the mushroom top and the base with wire). The top isn't smooth, since I didn't apply a layer of tissue paper over the newspaper, but the paint gives it a softer texture. The same paper-mache is wrapped around wire to create the hookah pipe stem (the base is vintage beads).

Last, but not least, I trimmed the top of his head with fuzzy pipe cleaner dyed blue. It's a vintage package I found in some craft supplies around back. A few twists of the pliers, a few loops of gold thead and voila -- antennae!

The finished product is curled on his mushroom, taking a few whiffs of smoke as he considers Alice's problem......